Protobi has two features that make coding text open-ends easier, the Recode dialog and Recode (advanced).
The advanced recode feature is particularly helpful for coding open-ends with many responses. At the top of the page the project name and the element key are displayed.
The main components of the page are:
- Values/ tags: The values and their corresponding tags
- Codes: Every tag that is added to the element will show up here
- Search bar: Look up key words to limit the values that appear
- Toolbar: Allows you to save, select values, add tags, etc...
Please note
This advanced recoding page is separate from the project view. Prior to launching Recode, make sure all changes are saved in the project view.
After you're done recoding in Recode (advanced), press the "save" button seen on the Recode (advanced) page. When you return to the project view, reload the browser to see the changes you made in Recode (advanced).
How to access
To get to an element's Recode (advanced) page, press on the header of the element you want to recode. It will turn blue to indicate it's selected. Then, from the "Advanced" button on the toolbar choose "Recode (advanced)."
Values/tags
Under the search bar, values from the element appear on the left, and each tag that is assigned to the value is on the right.
- Press on value(s) to select (yellow highlight)/ press again to deselect (white)
- Press Esc on your keyboard as another way to deselect values
-
Press "+": brings up the add tag dialog
- You can choose an existing tag or create a new one. Press ok.
-
Press a tag: limits the view to only values that have the tag
- Press the tag "none" to see all uncoded values
- Press "x": removes tag from value
Code set
The codes on the far right of the page is the entire code frame for the element.
- Press a tag: limits the view to only values that have the tag
- Press "x": deletes ALL instances of the tag
- Drag a code: drag a code to a value as another way to tag it
- Add a new code: Protobi suggests a numeric code, enter a label to identify the code
- Numerify codes: If your codes are strings instead of numeric, use this option to change all tags to number:label pairs
Search bar
The search bar allows you to limit the view to values that mention a key word. Search "difficult," and only values that contain the word will appear in the view.
You can also do searches using Regular Expressions, which can be very simple to very expressive. See the RegEx cheat sheet.
You can also double click on a word and it will automatically be added to the search bar.
Toolbar
Save (S)
Press or use keyboard shortcut S to save your work. After you're done recoding in Recode (advanced), press this button. When you return to the project view, reload the browser to see the changes you made in Recode (advanced).
Clear (Esc)
Press or use the Esc button on keyboard to clear your search.
Select all (e)
Press to select all values in the view pane. This lets you add tags to many values at once.
Below, all values that mention "difficult" are selected. Press Select all again to deselect all.
Add code (t)
Press to add tag to selected values.
This button is an alternative to pressing the "+" sign next to values. Press it to bring up the add tag dialog. You can choose an existing tag or create a new one. Press ok.
Remove codes (del)
Press to remove codes from selected values.
Labels (f)
Press to toggle from formatted values to raw values.
Download
You can download the coded values in CSV (E C) or XLSX (E X) format. Below we see the downloaded Excel for an element (Q7_chinese).
- Column A: raw values
- Column B: formatted values (values may not have formats)
- Column C: the tags assigned to each value
Upload
If you prefer to do your coding in Excel, you can do so and upload the CSV or file.
In order for this to work, use the column names seen in the download file: value, fmt, (element key). If you do not have fmt (formatted) values, delete the column.